Overcoming Depression For Dummies

by Smith, Laura L.

  We didn’t include any fun activities in the Negating Negative Predictions exercise. Did we leave out fun activities because we think that you shouldn’t or can’t enjoy yourself if you’re depressed? No. We excluded these activities because we believe that finding renewed pleasures is so important that we devote all of Chapter 11 to this topic.

  Giving Yourself Credit

  As well as the action-blocking thoughts, ‘can’t do-itis’ and negative predicting that we explored in the previous section, your depressed mind has another way of stopping you dead in your tracks. Consider this: you eventually manage to get yourself to finish something you’ve been putting off for quite a while. Then your mind proceeds to rubbish your success with the thought, ‘Well, sure I did that, but so what? Any fool could’ve done that!’ As this thought shows, depression not only spoils quality of life but it also tries to sabotage efforts you make to overcome it.

  When you hear your thoughts telling you to belittle your accomplishments, think about an alternative perspective. Doing the shopping when you’re not suffering from depression, perhaps doesn’t look like much of an achievement. But if you did the shopping despite having a broken leg, are you likely to value the achievement more highly?

  Okay, so you don’t have a broken leg. But the effect of depression is much the same. Depression makes everything harder to do than when you’re in a good frame of mind. As we point out in Chapter 2, depression drains the body of energy; saps enthusiasm, sabotages sleep, and can cause confusion.

  Given the wide range of physical and mental effects of depression, accomplishing any task in this condition is a remarkable feat. Therefore, don’t forget to give yourself a big pat on the back for getting things done when you’re depressed. It’s very important that you give yourself credit, by congratulating yourself for each and every effort you make – big and small.

  The technique of ‘three pats on the back’ a day can set up your new, productive habit. Note down three things you’ve managed to do each day, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. You’re likely to find that keeping and reviewing this record is going to help in lifting your mood.

  Chapter 10

  Exercising to Lift Depression

  In This Chapter

  Answering the ‘Why exercise?’ question

  Finding motivation in all the right places

  Fitting an exercise programme into your life

  Choosing exercise you can live with – and enjoy

  In this chapter, we show you how a fitness programme designed to fit snugly into your lifestyle can substantially improve your depression, your physical health, and even your quality of life. Exercise drives out depression. When depression tries to tell you that you can’t get started, we explain how to talk back to your depression and draw up a plan for overcoming your lethargy. And we help you choose the type of exercise that’s just right for you and your lifestyle.

  At 4 a.m., Patricia wakes up and can’t get back to sleep. She knows that lack of sleep affects her performance at work, which makes her even more upset, and that, in turn, makes getting back to sleep even more difficult. This early waking has just got to stop. Yesterday, even her boss commented that she looked tired. Patricia tosses and turns for the next two hours and then finally gets up at 6 a.m. What a miserable way to start the day.

  Depression runs in Patricia’s family, and she herself has been on and off medication for the past five years. Her doctor tells her that she’s probably going to need to be on antidepressants for life. But lately, the medication alone seems ineffective. Her depression worsens. First, her doctor increases the dosage; when that doesn’t work, he suggests adding another drug to improve her response to the medication. Patricia is worried about both short- and long-term side effects of both drugs. She asks her doctor about other therapies for depression. He suggests regular exercise. (And we agree!)

  But as much as we urge exercise, it serves as just one piece of the puzzle. If you try repeatedly, and still find you just can’t get into exercise, don’t beat yourself up. This book is bursting with many other ways of overcoming depression.

  Introducing Endorphins Into Your Life

  Who doesn’t want to feel good? There are so many ways of feeling great: laughter, a delicious meal, making love, dancing, or perhaps a walk in the great outdoors are just a few examples. But what is it about these activities that actually makes people feel good?

  The answer lies, in part, in the brain. The brain has special receptors that receive opiates, drugs such as heroin and cocaine that relieve pain and bring about a heightened sense of wellbeing. The human body produces its own natural substances, called endorphins that function like opiates in the brain. Endorphins produce a similar ‘high’ to that produced by heroin and cocaine: except endorphins are legal substances – and safe! You can generate endorphins through exercise and doing activities you enjoy. Endorphins bring about a feeling of pleasure and wellbeing that may well hinder depression.

  You can increase your production of endorphins by having sex, eating chocolate, consuming spicy foods, and, you guessed it, engaging in exercise. And although you can try to boost your endorphin level by sitting around eating chocolate all day or having non-stop sex, it’s pretty obvious that these approaches aren’t advisable. So you’re left with exercise.

  Regular exercise stimulates endorphin production and also tones up your whole body. Exercise improves your cardiovascular system, reduces the risk of various cancers, decreases the risk of diabetes, and balances your cholesterol ratio. As well, exercise gets rid of excessive adrenaline that can cause anxiety and other problems. It’s a fact: The right sort of exercise makes you healthier.

  Research suggests that exercise can help in easing depression. As yet, it isn’t clear if one particular type of exercise works better for lessening your depression (or if all types of exercise work equally well). Although we don’t recommend exercise as the only answer to dealing with major depression, you’re likely to benefit enormously from regular exercise.

  Always check with your doctor before beginning an exercise programme – especially if you’re overweight, over the age of 40, or have health problems. You also need to see your doctor if you experience serious pain, dizziness, nausea, or other troubling symptoms after exercising, because these symptoms aren’t generally normal after moderate exercise.

  Ungluing Yourself from the Sofa

  Exercise can help you feel better emotionally and physically, but there’s just one problem: depression tries to point you in the exact opposite direction, telling you to withdraw, retreat, and hibernate. So when you’re depressed, you can feel paralysed. Ordinary living takes extraordinary effort, and you may feel like staying in bed and pulling the covers up over your head.

  The mere thought of starting to exercise may sound utterly impossible when you’re in the midst of depression. You can barely put one foot in front of the other; how can we possibly suggest that you start exercising? The depressed mind comes up with thoughts that stifle initiative and motivation. These lethargic, demotivating thoughts may be telling you that you can’t possibly succeed in carrying out an exercise plan. We know you may feel this way. Please understand that we don’t underestimate the difficulty of overcoming the fatigue that’s brought on by depression. Nevertheless, we believe you’re going to find that the benefits of exercise outweigh the effort you put in.

  You can talk back to these dark thoughts that try to stifle activity. You can start by subjecting them to scrutiny and analysis. Ask yourself if there’s an alternative perspective to your depressed mind’s point of view. Is your mind exaggerating, distorting, or making negative predictions without any real basis? If so, try to substitute the negativity with realistic alternatives. You need to identify and provide counter-arguments to any negative thoughts that come into your mind, and then get that body moving!

  In the first column of Table 10-1, we list the five thoughts that most frequently get in the way of reasonable, alternative viewp
oints and prevent you from getting active. If you find yourself thinking negative demotivating thoughts, argue back with alternative, motivating thoughts such as the ones in the second column. (Go to Chapter 9 for other ideas on how to overcome action-blocking thoughts.)

  Table 10-1 Defeating Demotivating Thoughts

  Demotivating Thoughts

  Motivating Thoughts

  I’m too depressed to exercise.

  Although that’s how I feel, it doesn’t mean its true. I can test this thought out by going for a ten-minute walk.

  I can hardly get out of bed; I can’t possibly exercise.

  Another interesting, typically depressed thought. But I do get out of bed every day. And, if I can get out of bed, I know logically that I can push myself to do a small amount of exercise.

  Exercise isn’t worth doing.

  That’s how it feels, but the evidence says otherwise. Exercise helps people feel better. I know I read that somewhere . . .

  I don’t enjoy exercise.

  True. But I don’t have to turn into a fitness fanatic. I can benefit from even a small amount of exercise.

  I don’t have time to exercise.

  I make time to brush my teeth daily. If something is really important, I can find a way to fit it in a few times a week.

  After identifying your demotivating thoughts and arguing against them, you may still feel unmotivated. And a few demotivating thoughts may linger. Realise that thoughts are just thoughts – they’re not necessarily true.

  To show you how thoughts aren’t facts, we have a short exercise for you to do. (If you have a physical problem stopping you getting up and down easily try thinking up an exercise you can do sitting down that helps you conquer your demotivating thoughts.)

  1. Sit down in a comfortable chair.

  2. Say out loud, ‘I can’t stand up!’

  3. Forcefully say out loud, ‘I can’t stand up!’ ten more times.

  4. Now stand up.

  Did you manage to stand up? Your mind told your voice to say‘I can’t stand up’, but you did (or at least, we assume you did). The point of this seemingly silly exercise is to show your negative thoughts simply aren’t always true.

  You may find yourself thinking things that are inaccurate or untrue, and then act as though they really are just that. For example, we bet that you’ve heard quite a few people say, ‘I can’t stop smoking.’ Indeed, giving up smoking is incredibly difficult; and at times, it may seem impossible. Yet millions of people who make that statement eventually do manage to quit. Of course, when the smokers think that they can’t stop, they truly believe it. And when you’re depressed, you fully believe the thought that says you just can’t exercise.

  Thoughts are just thoughts – many thoughts born of a depressed mind have no more reality than ‘I can’t stand up’, or ‘I can’t stop smoking’.

  Easing Into Exercise

  With any luck, you can convince yourself that it may well be easy to start exercising. But that doesn’t mean that exercising itself is going to be easy. Depression really does sap your body’s energy, so we suggest that you start your exercise programme gently and ever so slowly.

  Most exercise gurus preach the importance of exercising for at least 20 minutes, three to five times a week. You may have read recent guidelines recommending that you exercise for at least one hour each day. We don’t know about you, but we certainly don’t have a spare hour a day. Research shows that doing any exercise is far better than none, so even ten minutes, three or four times a week, can help. And you can ease your way into the world of exercise with activities that barely seem like exercise at all:

  Park a little farther from your workplace.

  Choose the space in the car park furthest from where you want to go.

  Take the stairs rather than the lift or escalator.

  Do a few brief exercises during work breaks.

  If you use a cordless or mobile phone, walk while you talk.

  The next time you go shopping, walk a bit further through the shopping centre.

  Walking a little farther, taking the stairs, and moving around more all make a good start for your exercise programme. Then, if you want, you can add a little more activity to your daily routine. To get the maximum benefit from exercise, work your body a little harder each day.

  The following list shows you three decisions you have to make when designing your exercise programme. For each, start small and build up slowly. And remember that you’re not competing with anyone, so don’t compare yourself to others if you go to the gym.

  Frequency: ‘How often am I going to work exercise into my life?’ As a start, consider planning to exercise twice a week.

  Intensity: ‘How fast and how far am I going to walk, or run? How heavy are the weights I’m going to use?’ At first, we suggest the answer be ‘not very’ to all of these questions.

  Time: ‘How long do I want to exercise each time?’ Try starting with just ten minutes.

  Weighing Up Your Exercise Options

  What type of exercise is going to work best for you? We can honestly say that we have no idea. And you may not know either. So we recommend that you review the various exercise options and pick one that looks the most appealing at first sight (or even just the one that looks the least horrible!).

  In this section, we look at strength training, aerobic exercise, and yoga – three of the most popular exercise options. If you want even more info on all the possibilities that are out there, check out at your local health club or sports centre, or pick up a copy of Fitness For Dummies by Suzanne Schlosberg and Liz Neporent (Wiley).

  Whatever type of exercise you go for, try it out for at least two weeks. If you find that type of exercise isn’t for you, choose another. You may have to experiment a little, but you’re likely to find an exercise soon that works well for you.

  The goal isn’t to become an accomplished yoga master, or to win an international dance competition, or even to become an Olympic champion. You only need to increase the intensity of your exercise slightly to start feeling the benefits.

  Lifting depression’s heavy weight

  Strength training involves building muscle. You can do this through weightlifting with free weights or by using weight machines. However, you don’t actually need to use machines or weights at all. You can try the following strength-building exercises that don’t need any special equipment:

  Lunges

  Push-ups

  Sit-ups

  Squats

  You may think that strength training is only for body builders or for younger people. Not so. Many studies show that strength training provides incredible benefits at almost any age, perhaps even more so in older people. Strength training appears to improve mood, reduce the risk of falls, enhance memory and thinking ability, and prolong life.

  Consider the possibility of a personal trainer, who can tailor strength training exercises that are just right for you. If you pay your trainer in advance for a discounted rate for a block of sessions, the desire not to waste your money is a powerful motivator (as is of course, having your very own trainer).

  At first, you may find you’re not too sure about your decision to work out. You may discover that muscles you didn’t even know you had are aching. But within a month, you are very likely to begin feeling the difference made by your new, healthy habit.

  Strength training can easily lead to injury if you aren’t careful and don’t know what you’re doing. We recommend that you first talk to a trainer at your local gym or read a book on the subject, such as Weight Training For Dummies by Liz Neporent, Suzanne Schlosberg, and Shirley Archer (Wiley).

  Working your heart and lungs

  Aerobic exercise (or cardiovascular exercise) is one of the easiest exercise programmes to start. This type of exercise increases your oxygen intake and speeds up your heart rate. (Aerobic means ‘with oxygen’.)

  Aerobic exercise has a positive effect on your body. As well as improving your mood, aerobics can
:

  Reduce bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol

  Increase energy

  Reduce blood pressure

  Improve lung capacity